# puerpera
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin puerpera (“woman in labor or childbed”), substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“child, boy”) +‎ pariō (“to bring forth, bear”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /pjuˈɜː.pə.ɹə/
* (General American) IPA: /pjuˈɝ.pəɹ.ə/

### Noun

puerpera (plural puerperas or puerperae)
* (obstetrics) A woman undergoing puerperium; a woman whose uterus is still enlarged from pregnancy.
** 1918, Joseph Bolivar De Lee, Principles and practice of obstetrics, page 813:I saw a very serious hemorrhage result from relaxation of the uterus on the eleventh day when the puerpera had been frightened by a domestic quarrel.
** 1934, Karl Mathias Beierlein, Pamphlets and Reprints, page 350:Since one of the principal reasons for keeping the puerpera in a recumbent posture is avoidance of strain upon relaxed and weakened supporting structures by a large heavy uterus, the length of the stay in bed is not made a matter of routine
** 1984, Erhard Haus, Hugh F. Kabat, editors, Chronobiology 1982-1983:A statistically significant circadian rhythm for urine volume was revealed in 6 of 10 pregnant women in the first trimester and in 6 of 9 puerperas on the 7th puerperal day.
** 2011, Eberhard Merz, “Ultrasound in the Puerperium”, in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, volume 1, page 39:Abdominal ultrasound of the puerpera usually does not require a full bladder, because the enlarged uterus directly abuts the anterior abdominal wall and can be scanned without difficulty.
* (rare) A woman who has recently given birth.
** 1731, Robert Boyle, Medicinal experiments, volume 3, page 6:An often proved Remedy to bring away what is, or should not be left in the Womb of a Puerpera, though it were Part of a dead Child.
** 1860, Henry E. Brady, David Collier, quoting Ignaz Semmelweis, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 224:"I must acknowledge, if Kolletschka's disease and the disease from which I saw so many puerperae die, are identical, then in the puerperae it must be produced by the self-same engendering cause, which produced it in Kolletschka."
** 1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean".
** 1907, Henry Jacques Garrigues, A Text-book of the science and art of obstetrics, page 243:With the exception of the very nearest, — for instance, the husband and the mother of the puerpera, — visitors should be kept away until she has been out of bed for a few days, and even then admitted only in small numbers and one at a time.

#### Derived terms

* puerperal

#### Translations
### References

* “puerpera”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

## Italian
### Noun

puerpera f (plural puerpere)
* a woman who has just given birth

#### Related terms

* puerperio

## Latin
### Etymology 1

Substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“boy, child”) +‎ pariō (“to bear, give birth”) +‎ -us (adjectival suffix).

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrpɛrä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]

#### Noun

puerpera f (genitive puerperae); first declension
* woman in labor or in childbed, lying-in woman
** c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 5.1.40
** c. 30 BCE, Horace, Epodes 17.52

##### Inflection

First-declension noun.

##### Derived terms

* puerperium

##### Descendants

* Italian: puerpera
* Portuguese: puérpera
* Sicilian: puèrpira
* Spanish: puérpera
* → English: puerpera
* → German: Puerpera

#### References

* puerpera in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* “puerperus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* puerpera: (Classical Latin) IPA: /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrpɛrä]
* puerpera: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]
* puerperā: (Classical Latin) IPA: /puˈer.pe.raː/, [puˈɛrpɛräː]
* puerperā: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]

#### Adjective

puerpera
* inflection of puerperus:
** nominative/vocative feminine singular
** nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

#### Adjective

puerperā
* ablative feminine singular of puerperus